Britain exports Happy Slapping to France.

Happy Slapping is a teenage craze that started in Britain (the country that also gave the world punks and Chavs.) It involves a hooligan slapping or punching another person (usually a stranger on a bus or in the street), whilst the hooligan's friend films it on his mobile (cell) phone. Despite its name, Happy Slapping often involves more than just simple slaps.

France Combats 'Happy Slapping' Fad
Friday, May 05, 2006

Two youths in Manchester use their mobile phones to film another youth punch his victim.

PARIS — An enraged student pummels a teacher, hurling a classroom chair, swinging fists and wrestling her to the ground -- and the scene is captured by a fellow student on a cell phone camera.

The beating in a high school on the outskirts of Paris is forcing France to join other European countries tackling the spread of so-called "happy slapping," a fad in which violence is filmed and passed phone-to-phone or on the Internet for others to see.

The phenomenon -- which began in Britain, and whose name belies the gravity of the attacks -- involves mostly youths. Often, the victims are strangers.

Experts say it is rooted in voyeurism, violence on TV, a desire of some youths to show off and the spread of camera-enabled cell phones and the Digital Age.

In France, "happy slapping" appears to be rare, so far. Police have counted about 20 cases of filmed violence or sex attacks, but acknowledge there could be countless others -- and the number could grow.

A British media commentator last year cited shows such as MTV's "Jackass," in which the regulars performed stunts involving self-inflicted pain and humiliation, as an inspiration behind "happy slapping." Others disputed that claim.

In America, some young people have riffed off "Jackass" in recent years by recording violent pranks and stunts and submitting them to popular Internet sites, though the "happy slapping" fad itself has yet to become a source of concern for school officials.

"I meet with principals every week, and I've never heard of it," said Bill Bond, a school safety expert with the National Association of Secondary School Principals.

The "happy slapping" fad is particularly worrying to French authorities, who have been combating youth violence after a wave of rioting, car burnings and violence last fall mostly in poor neighborhoods of Paris and other cities.

"For some youths, it is seen as a way for the poor to get revenge against the rich, who are blamed for society's problems," said Mohamed Douhane, a Paris police captain who specializes in youth crime. "It's a way for them to amuse the gallery in their neighborhoods."

French police first grew concerned when youths filmed during last fall's rioting were seen using cell phones to record clashes between their buddies and police, he said.

The attack on the teacher last month at a vocational high school in the town of Porcheville, in the Yvelines region west of Paris, sparked concern that youths could now be using phones to film premeditated violence. In a sign that politicians are growing concerned, the education minister said Wednesday he wants cell phones banned from classrooms.

Other parts of Europe already have taken action. The German state of Bavaria and dozens of schools in Ireland have barred cell phones from classrooms.

Last month, Danish courts handed down the first "happy slapping" convictions to two teens. The boy and girl had recorded an assault on a passerby in a Copenhagen shopping mall in February.

In November, a Dutch teenager was arrested in Amsterdam after confessing to hitting a woman in the head while friends filmed the incident for laughs.

In one of the most chilling cases, a report in the French daily Le Parisien on Wednesday said photos were taken of a young girl in Nice who was gang-raped earlier this year, and the images were circulated at her school.

Divisional commissioner Serge Castello, a police official in the Yvelines region southeast of Paris, said police "absolutely want to make sure that it doesn't develop" into a major problem in France -- and are intensely motivated to crack down.

"Every time we hear of an incident, we go all-out to track down the perpetrators," he said.

Others are not so sure police can prevent the spread of "happy slapping."

"I am nearly certain we're headed toward attacks that become more and more spectacular," said Pascal Lardellier, a communications science professor in Dijon and author of "Le Pouce et La Souris: Enquete sur la culture numerique des ados" ("The Thumb and the Mouse: A Study of the Digital Culture of Teens").

"Yesterday, it was a teacher, tomorrow it could be a police officer, or a judge," he said. "From the moment that the youths see the media are paying attention, there becomes this sickening process in which they try to outdo one another. It's a vicious cycle."

"They have understood intuitively that all you have to do is smack a stranger in the street, film it, put it up on a blog or the Internet, and it will garner a certain amount of success," Lardellier said.